


A pair of socks

by RainyMonday



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Fantastic Holiday Exchange 2018, Flashbacks, Longing, M/M, Mirror of Erised, Missing somebody, Socks, somehow a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-25 01:39:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17112026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyMonday/pseuds/RainyMonday
Summary: Albus spends Christmas without Gellert Grindelwald and tries not to remember. He fails of course.For the Fantastic Holiday Exchange 2018





	A pair of socks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Issay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Issay/gifts).



> Issay,  
> I hope you enjyo reading this little Christmas gift! I was really excited about your prompt!  
> It's not as long as I wanted it to be, but I was busier than expected...  
> It's the first time I've ever written Grindelore (well after that movie, I just had to ;) ), I hope it's alright.  
> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It was Christmas and Hogwarts was alight, full of flying candles and come to life Christmas  
decorations. The huge Christmas trees covered almost all the empty space that had been there previously, their fir needles covering the floor while some annoyed house-elves were constantly busy cleaning them up.

 

While the Great Hall was cozily warm, smelling like food and Christmas cookies, the floors were cold, wind and snow from left-open windows hunting through them.  
Peeves had fun throwing Christmas decorations had helpless students and Professor Flitwick chased him down one day and after that, Peeves stopped harassing the trees and went back to scare students by throwing things less dear to the professor.

 

The chats in the hallways were a little bit louder and a little bit more cheerful than usually, and the lessons a little bit less demanding and more filled by the smell of tangerines and sweets.  
Admittingly, partly it was his fault. He’d never been able to resist any sort of sweet, neither chocolate frogs nor Bertie Bott’s Beans.  
He was convinced that as a role model for his students, he should show them how important it was to enjoy simple pleasures, especially during time.

Therefore, it was totally excusable for him to peel another tangerine while his students were writing down their notes. After all, they were allowed to eat in class as well. He’d been in trouble because apparently that caused a lot of extra cleaning work, but a little bit of trouble had never stopped him.

 

So it was warm and cozy, merrily and Christmassy and he still felt empty, left-over, wrong. He knew why but didn’t dare to admit it.  
There were Christmas lights, too much food and smiling faces and yet he longed for something else. It could have been perfect, he could have been happy and yet his heart had to destroy this as is always did. It just wasn’t the right smiling face.

From all the people he could have fallen in love with, why had it been him, when had his life become this? Longing for something, someone, he corrected himself, he couldn’t have? Someone he should fight actually.  
His heart ached and he already saw himself standing in front of the Mirror of Erised, staring in there, preferring an illusion over reality just because it got him this one, special smile that made his knees still feel wobbly and his heart pound faster.

 

He entered the Great Hall and walked past the tables towards the professor’s table. He tried to ignore the newspapers and their headings, prominent and screaming, ignored the face staring at him, flashing the reader a crazy smile. It could never be.

“You seem upset today”, Professor Deemus made a few fast steps to walk alongside him.

“Do I?”, he replied, still deep in his thoughts.

“Well, I can’t decide whether you are staring angrily at the distance or angrily at the Daily Prophet.”, the other commented and Albus felt forced to put up a smile.

The stretch was almost painful to his lips: “I’ve simply been caught up in thoughts. One of my students raised an interesting question in class and I’m considering how to answer it”

“Always the great teacher, aren’t you?”, the professor laughed and patted him on the back.  
“I heard you’ll be staying at Hogwarts during Christmas”, he continued and Albus felt himself flinch. The smile almost drained from his face.

“Yes. What am I supposed to do alone in London?”, he tried to reply cheerfully, “I belong here, I guess. And some students and staff will stay as well. Better than celebrating with a lonely tree”  
Better than celebrating alone, thinking about him, hoping for a miracle.

Isn’t it time to start a family Albus?”, it was hard not to gnash his teeth.  
“I’m quite certain I am not a family person”

“Why? You get along so well with kids”

“Students”

“I am telling you, as soon as you meet the right person…”

He swallowed the bitter laugh that had almost escaped his lips. Yes, the right person. Why did nobody ever asked what happened when one found the right person and he turned out to be a mass-murdering extremist with the most charming smile and a brain as cunning as his?

“I am afraid that chance already passed”, he forced out, his voice strained and his gaze fixed straight ahead. He really needed to change the topic before things got worse. He really started to hate Christmas.

“I heard you had to flood your classroom after one of your students set your table on fire”, he continued instead and luckily, Professor Deemus turned to a soft shade of pink and stammered something about a spell gone wrong.

 

Thankfully, Albus was able to escape the topic for the rest of the day. Thought it got increasingly harder. Christmas was only two days away and everybody seemed so excited to spend it with his loved ones.  
He was almost relieved when he entered his office and was once again alone. It wasn’t this hard the rest of the year when nobody expected him to share time with his family, friends or partner. It was shocking how he managed to have neither in such a short time of life.  
Maybe it was his own fault.

 

He sighed and prepared the next lesson after the holidays, distracting himself from all the thoughts he usually pushed as far back as possible and that came now creeping forward.

Now, after the ministry had sent him yet another owl and he had to make up another reason not to involve in international crime fighting and now, at Christmas, when everybody asked him about his love life, it was just impossible. He almost wished for a classroom full of unobservant, distracted students to occupy himself with.

In the end, he stood in front of the mirror, torn between pulling the covers away and resisting. Of course he pulled them down. He had never been really good in self-control.

He just stood there and stared into the cloudy glass before the images appeared. He could feel himself smile softly. He wanted to connect his hand with the glass, reach behind the mirror, the mere illusion, step into a world where they weren’t separated. A world in which he was less lonely. He wondered if Gellert felt the same.

 

All the pictures in the newspaper only showed Gellert grinning madly, showed him standing over other’s bodies. Those displays hurt.  
Albus knew how Gellert’s smiles used to look, probably still did when he wasn’t posing. Warm and soft, cunning and knowing, a teasing smirk, how his eyes lit up when he had an idea and how he laughed loudly and without holding back when Albus had said something especially stupid. The fond expression he displayed when he had said something clever.

Gellert had always thought he hadn’t seen those expressions of fondness, but he had seen, had drived in how the other’s lips couldn’t help but form a soft smile whenever they were together. It probably wasn’t any different with himself.

 

In the mirror, they were back in Godric’s Hollow, still so naïve, so young.  
The room was small and simple but illuminated by a flickering fire and the soft lights of a Christmas tree.

He remembered this tree so well. It had been small and cranky, with branches growing everywhere except where they were supposed to grow. They had fixed it a little bit, grew some new branches and decorated the tree with straw stars and color changing candles. It had been their first Christmas and it had been perfect.

 

They had already eaten and were about to open their presents. There were only two packages beneath the tree, one from him and the other from Gellert. It had been a ridiculous idea but it had been there very own Christmas, something just for them.

 

He had always jokingly mentioned how he was in need of new socks given the cold stone walls and the rainy weather. Gellert had always laughed and teased him until he stopped complaining. There had been more important things than warm feet.  
They had already been searching for the Deathly Hollows then, completely obsessed and so young and so naïve.

He had bubbled into laughter when he unpacked his present only to find a pair of warm, comfy socks.

“You listened to me for once”, he stated and again caught Gellert smiling at him fondly.

“You’re wailing was absolutely unnerving Albus”, the other replied, “I know I promised you greater things, better things. But until I can fulfill these promises, it's socks”

“I’m not going to say no to that”, he stated and leaned in for a kiss, long and soft while the fire flickered in the chimney and his feet weren’t cold anymore.

“So a pair of socks for every Christmas we haven’t found them?”

“If you won’t stop complaining”

“Cold feet or the most powerful magical artifacts in the world. You’re giving me a tough choice Gellert”

“Sometimes I really wonder how such a brilliant mind can be so much like you most of the time”

“A brilliant mind. I like the sound of that”

“Always thirsty for compliments, aren’t you?”

“Not as much as you are. Speaking of you and your full-of-yourself-head, it's time you unwrap your own present”

“As long as it's not socks”

“I’m more creative than that”

“Really?”, Gellert raised his eyebrows.

“When I’m not occupied trying to locate the Deathly Hollows of course.”

“You must be really occupied most of the time then”

“Shut up and open your present already”  
He had put lots of thoughts into this and probably it had even prevented him from trying to find the philosopher’s stone. But the expression on Gellert’s face was worth it.  
The necklace with their symbol seemed to glow in the light of the fire and enhanced the pleasant surprise on the other’s face.

“It’s a promise”, Albus stated, “that we’ll find them at one day. Fulfill our dreams. Together”  
He was pulled into another kiss, this time rougher, full of want. It left him breathless. If he remembered hard enough, he could still feel the way Gellert's lips had been pressed against his.

 

A promise it had been indeed. Albus still longed to fulfill it somehow. Together. It hadn’t been about the Deathly Hollow, about their stupid plans. It had been about the together. He’d broken his promise anyways by now.  
He wondered if Gellert still owned the necklace or if he had tossed it away the moment he realized that Albus would leave.  
He still had the socks, of course he did.  
He had never been able to let go.

He kept staring at the mirror for the rest of the night and was tired and ill-tempered in the morning where his day just seemed to repeat itself, never getting any better.  
They had their Christmas dinner, they pulled open their Christmas crackers. He got another hat and he wore it only because he didn’t want the others to ask any questions.  
He left before the dessert appeared.  
This night, he wasn’t staring at the Mirror of Erised, forced himself not to. He was staring at the wall instead, thinking about all the things that could have been. Wondered, who had done something wrong in the end, wondered how this mess would turn out.

He must have fallen asleep at one point, tired from the last night, still fully dressed and crouched awkwardly in his chair.  
He probably would have slept longer if someone hadn’t made a terribly annoying noise, a shrill tapping.  
He groaned, got his stiff body out of the chair somehow and looked around the room to locate the source of annoyance.

There was an owl picking against the window, waiting to be let inside. He wondered what it was doing here. There wasn’t a Daily Prophet delivered on Christmas. Probably the Ministry of Magic again. He sighed, massaging his temples. Not again.  
He opened the window anyways because it was in no ways the bird’s fault. The owl flew inside, dropped something on his table and before he had any chance to offer her either payment or a response, stating that he would not help the aurors, she was out of the window again.  
He frowned and reached down for the package. It was small and soft, wrapped in dark red paper. It didn’t say who it was from.

He simply unwrapped it. Out fell a pair of warm, magenta colored socks.  
He felt his heart stop for a moment before he reached down to pick them up, carefully, almost afraid by touching them they would disappear.  
They did not.  
There was a note attached in elegant writing he would have recognized from anywhere except that he already knew who had sent it to him. His heart beat faster. Maybe he hadn't forgotten after all. He felt a smile growing on his face while his fingers brushed over the soft wool. He suddenly didn't feel that lonely anymore.

__

__

“As I promised: until we find them a pair of socks every year”

__

**Author's Note:**

> I know that Professor Flitwick most likely wasn't a teacher back then, but I remembered him doing all this Christmas decoration in Harry Potter book one and just thought I'd use him…
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading!


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